The Completely Baffling Tale Of The Tennessee Autoworkers

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Hang in there. This will take a minute.

Down in Tennessee, the UAW is organizing at a Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chattanooga. This is being done with the complete cooperation -- nay, the enthusiastic encouragement -- of the company. This is because Volkswagen is attempting to bring to the U.S. the concept of the "works councils" which have proven to be successful in Europe and elsewhere.

While the details of the arrangement would be ironed out after the election, works councils -- which are elected by all workers in a factory, both blue and white collar, whether or not they belong to the union -- usually help decide things like staffing schedules and working conditions, while the union bargains on wages and benefits. They have the right to review certain types of information about how the company is doing financially, which often means that they're more sympathetic towards management's desire to make cutbacks when times are tough. During the recession, for example, German works councils helped the company reduce hours across the board rather than laying people off, containing unemployment until the economy recovered.

But the really screwy part comes in because the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature have decided to knucklethe company over this effort. And leading the pack is Senator Bob Corker, who is occasionally cast as a "moderate" Republican in our national pageant, but who really is pretty much as big a cluck as the rest of them.

"It's a Detroit-based organization. They're the largest shareholder of General Motors," (Corker) said at a news conference. "The key to their survival is to come down and organize plants in the Southeast." "When UAW organizers look at VW employees they see dues, money in their coffers," he said. The Tennessee Republican said the UAW discussion already is having a dampening impact on wooing new business to Tennessee. If the UAW organizes the VW plant, it will hurt the standard of living of people in the state, he said. "We're concerned about the impact," he said. "Look at Detroit."

In other words, Volkswagen cannot be allowed to build a cooperative relationship with a union even if it wants to do so. Suddenly, government regulation of an industry is looking pretty good to the wingnut caucus in the Tennessee lege.

I repeat, for the benefit of readers who may have joined us late...Volkswagen is on board with this (!) The only reasons for Corker to be such a colossal dick about what Volkswagen and the UAW are trying to do are: a) to enable himself again to say "shiftless Negroes" sotto voce -- the way he did when he race-baited hapless Harold Ford, Jr. into a sad life haunting the Green Rooms -- and, b) to demonstrate that Bob Corker is in favor of low wages and against the right of workers to do anything except be ground into sawdust. This is a story you should keep in mind every time a Republican makes bold speeches about how they are freeing up the American worker through right-to-work laws, and if the Supreme Court gets around to blowing up collective bargaining. They are not opposed to unions out of any notion of the public good. They are opposed to unions because the people who own them are.